The Occupy Wall Street movement that originated in Zuccotti Park transformed into a flash mob in New York City’s Times Square this afternoon as 10,000 – 20,000 protestors descended upon the the Crossroads of the World to demonstrate their opposition to corporatism and run-amok capitalism, not to mention any one of dozens if not hundreds of causes.
Today’s Times Square demonstration was one of over 1000 in 87 countries across the planet.
Of course, the NYPD continued to embarrass themselves today, with more beatings and possibly unlawful arrests, including locking into a Citibank branch ATM lobby citizens who reportedly went in to the bank to withdraw their money from their accounts.
The NYPD penned in both protestors and ordinary citizens — including thousands of tourists — who were merely “occupying” Times Square by walking around the plaza and sidewalks, unaware there was a protest about to happen.
We got to Times Square just past 5:00 PM and already the several-blocks area was packed, with metal police barricades making it dangerous to enter the area. People literally were immobilized, something the NYPD likes to do — divide and conquer. It’s a tactic they use on Independence Day and on New Year’s Eve, closing off streets, making travel from one block to the next almost impossible, and making travel across town nearly impossible too. It’s flat-out dangerous and it’s time for it to stop.
However, there truly is no stopping this movement. The real question now is, where is it going?
New York Magazine offered extensive coverage, including this:
By 6:30 p.m. Twitter users at Times Square were broadcasting that arrests were being made, minutes before Democracy Now! reporter Ryan Deveraux tweeted “A horse just went down. Crowd is going wild. NYPD says anyone near barricade is going to jail.”
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New York‘s Alex Klein reports from Times Square: As officers on horseback pushed into the crowd at 46th and Broadway, two people were beaten, and one pinned and carried away. As crowds on the other side of the barricade pushed forward, a group of officers ran toward the divider with billie clubs. The crowd pushed backward and an older woman was knocked to the floor. She lay bleeding from a gash in her head, tended by four occupiers around her. “She’s an 81-year old holocaust survivor,” claimed Alan Roth, 50, who was holding a rag to her head. “They charged quickly toward the gate then this happened,” he said. His denim jacket was stained with her blood. An officer standing next to her told me an ambulance was coming, but given the blockades, there is no way an ambulance could get through.
The occupation had been fairly low-key until the 6 o’clock arrival of police in riot gear, on horses, motorcycles, and with shields. An occupier Jason Saadiin, 31, said, “It was so pedestrian and boring until the police showed up.” He was also at the scene and saw police pulling front-line protesters out of the crowd and beating them with batons, about 20 yards from where I was standing. “They embarrass themselves every time, they draw an invisible line through intimidation, and when people cross them, they hurt them.”
WNBC is estimating that between 10,000 and 20,000 people are in Times Square, while Twitter reports collected by Reuters’ de Rosa say that police in riot gear as well as the NYPD’s counterterrorism unit have arrived in the area. By now, police have sealed the area and even pushed protesters back enough to allow limited car traffic through, asking the assembled masses to “please exit at 46th.”
Here are a few photos I took at today’s Occupy Times Square rally. More and video to come later tonight and tomorrow, along with our now-daily “Occupy Wall Street Photo Of The Day.”
